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Way Back When...

Bit of nostalgia for you today. A while ago Cameron posted about some old art work she had found from when she was younger. I have a small folder of stuff, kept through the years and to be honest I only started saving it when Mum showed teenage me a handful of drawings she had done when she was younger. I wished I could have seen more... So that got me saving the odd picture or two of my own and now my girls are the same, telling me I should have kept more...

So Cameron, here's a little peek inside the folder.

These first few are from the early 90's I would have been around 13 - 15. I loved animals but especially cats, both big and small - still do actually :)

This next one, I still vividly remember doing. Sat on my sisters bed while she too was drawing. Surrounded by those girls annuals - Diana, Jackie, Mandy - remember those? I loved the hand drawn comic strip stories as opposed to the photo ones and would often try and copy the art. This one always struck me and I became slightly obsessed with the woman in the story, well not the story, just that particular square of art in the story...

...often recreating her in some form or another... this is the only recreation I have left as I would bin them or give them away...

Ah the obsessive teenage Cam.

I also loved to draw cartoons. Just used make them up for the most part... bog standard cheap as chips biro and £1 shop felt tip pens.... whatever paper I could find.

What an innocent teenager I was - I didn't know the 'other' connotation of the name on the cat. My friends had great fun guffawing at that and going to great lengths to explain it. I was horrified ! Must have liked her though as I kept her.

I would also have great fun cartoonising people. Mainly myself and my sister. This is her...

I did a whole series of these and she nicked all but this one which I kept as it was the first one. I was surprised to find out not long ago that she still has them and intends to frame them in her computer room - I never told her but that gave me a real Ready Brek glow :)

I would also copy the cartoons from newspapers and comics, adding my own sub-captions... remember Count Duckula?

"That's all I have to say!"

I can remember Mum buying packs of those jotters you get in school and the I would just fill them up with biro and felt tip drawings of cartoons... why did I never keep them eh?

I stopped drawing in my late teens/early 20's. A long story but suffice to say I let someone else define me. Bad move. And that, as well as many other reasons, was one of the darkest periods in my life. My Mum often asked me why I stopped and at the time I just couldn't tell her. In 2004, I would have been 27 , she got me going with her to an evening art class. Under the guise of keeping her company - crafty mare. These were from those classes and I have such happy memories attached of that time spent with her...

I started dabbling a little bit, not a lot and had very little confidence in myself still. In 2007 I started crafting again, kicked off by a scrapbook class that my friend took me to on my 30th birthday. I haven't looked back creatively since. It was like a kung-fu kick to a door somewhere in my head and all this stuff came pouring out.

We lost my Mum in June that year and I so wish she could have seen me enjoying this side of things again. Even selling some of my work. She was such a creative woman herself though she would never admit it. Always cooking or knitting - the gardening displays she did and knowing what to put where and how to revive dead plants (that I just assumed were meant to be that attractive shade of brown when I bought them...) I really think she started it all when she took me to that night class, little did she know.

Or maybe she did.

So there you go - a little peek back in time. Thank you as always for stopping by :)

I gave up for quite a few years because of confidence issues too, it only takes a chance remark (mine was about drawing correct perspective!) and that self doubt can get its heel in. I am so glad that I got myself through it though, as I am never happier than when I am creating.

As are you, I suspect! It's great to see your old work as it can transport you back to that time. You may remember I did that on my blog a while back. It also can spark new ideas....

Flippin' 'eck Carmen - those drawings are amazing! I like the lion best I think.... probably because he reminds me of Aslan :D (still having trouble posting comments on some blogs but I'm not really anonymous! (Its Sandra x)